Laughter and Love: why we all need that funny someone..

If you were to make a list of the qualities you look for in a partner, chances are a “good sense of humour”, or “someone that makes me laugh” would be high on your list. 

Why? Because life isn’t meant to be serious all the time, is it? By having someone that’s going to make you giggle and laugh now and then is a great way maintain balance and excitement in a relationship.

In fact, new research has found that when two strangers meet for the first time, the more times a man tries to make her laugh with his humour, the more likely the woman will be interested in him. And if both laugh together, well this is an even better indication of their romantic connection.

In an article published in the journal of Evolutionary Psychology, hall examines three studies that he’s conducted to find the link between humour and intelligence. The first study involved 35 participants who studied the Facebook profile pages of 100 strangers to try and gauge their personalities. From what was seen through comments and content, humorous people were much more likely to be extroverted than intelligent.

The second study involved about 300 students filling out a survey on humour in a dating/relationship sense. The study found there was no link between how smart the person was and how funny he or she claimed to be. But what it did find is that again, there was a connection betweenhumour and extroversion. 

Then in the third study, 51 pairs of single, heterosexual college-aged students sat in a room and chatted for about 10 minutes and then filled out a survey. They also didn’t know each other.

And as we had hoped, the results indicated that the more times a man tried to be funny and the more times a woman laughed in response, the more likely she was to be romantically interested in him (cue the awww's). And, when they laughed together, they were more likely to be interested in one another 

"The idea that humour is a signal of intelligence doesn't give humour its due credit," said associate professor of communications studies, Jeffrey Hall. "If you meet someone who you can laugh with, it might mean your future relationship is going to be fun and filled with good cheer."

So it seems then men might need to steer clear of the cheesy pickup lines and go in armed with a few ways to make her laugh — yay for funny people!